I can't catch a break but I can catch a cold...

I have been a bit under the weather today and do believe I have come down with strep throat. I generally get it a few times a year and while I am not sure why, I still have my tonsils. In fact I have enlarged tonsils which may be a contributing factor to the strep as well I was born with polyps on my larynx which have never been removed. However I do know the reason for that.

While I was born with them they did not have any effect on me until I went through puberty. As my voice changed it became much deeper then most boys and I started to have sore throats more often. On the several occasions the doctors have looked at them the advice has been the same, the removal of them might do more damage then good because of their position. The idea is now to play a waiting game and monitor them for signs of pre-cancerous cells. If those show up then we have decision to make as it becomes a situation of living and maybe losing all or partially the ability to speak or allow them to develop cancer. My doc keeps an eye on them and if they appear to change in any manner they will send me in for a biopsy.

Ironically for someone who sounds like they are the sickly kid from down the street I have always been rather healthy. Most of my problems have been in the last 3 years and prior to that the worst thing had been some stitches for a cut (ok, I chopped off the tips of 2 fingers) and a hernia in 95. The fingers were not my fault and I had not even been drinking but I severed the tops (down to the first knuckle) of the index & middle fingers on my left hand.

I spent most of my youth very active and I really stayed that way until I turned 30 and started being more involved with my family rather then myself. I played soccer for the better part of 22 years and could run a good distance. In fact by the time I was in 7th grade I was running sub 6 minute miles and when I left the Army I had broken 5 minute miles several times. It was not really that I loved to run, I was just good at it. I also seemed to have the ability to run fairly long distances with no problems.

I won't blame being sick on not being active because I stay as active as I can and I also eat a healthy diet and make sure that I get adequate vitamins and minerals in my diet. I think maybe most of my being sick is from my limited interactions outside the house. Obviously getting out and about is not easy any longer so I have found things in the house to keep me busy. Well without being around people my body is no longer bombarded daily with trace amounts of the germs that make us sick and learning to build those immunities so that when I do finally get out for a bit I seem to end up with some sort of cold. Having gone out to dinner last night in a place with several thousand people milling about it is quite possible I picked something up.

I took some Robitussin though and am going to head to bed.